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I am attending an Economics of Happiness Conference in Byron Bay NSW. It’s the first time I’ve been here in Byron Bay in more than 30 years. It is an attractive coastal town whose white settler history began when James Cook anchored here in 1770 – he named the town after the grandfather of the [...]

A popular myth is that the unemployed are only unhappy because they lose income. They derive gains from the increased leisure they enjoy – hence the popular notion of the “dole-bludger” at Bondi Beach enjoying the surf and sunshine while the rest of us slave away supporting their dole payments with our taxed income.

This excellent video presented by Prof. Emmanuel Saez on US and other developed country income distribution trends for top incomes post-1913 is very worthwhile. Nothing exceptionally new is provided but it is very objective and well presented.

I am attending a conference on The Economics of Happiness in a couple of weeks. It will be held in Byron Bay NSW where I spent some time in my surfing youth. Given the location, I should at least emerge from the conference very happy indeed. I posted once before on this topic when I [...]